Stories that WUNC strived to tell in 2023 touched on themes of activism and action, of recovery, revival and rejoicing, and of protest and pain.
Those stories took our reporters and photographers from a speedway in North Wilkesboro to a small town on the Lumber River, from the governor’s mansion in Raleigh to a college student’s closet in Chapel Hill, and from a rowdy Reynolds Coliseum to a graduation stage in Greensboro.
These are the 2023 Photos of the Year from WUNC.
Powerful Portraits
Gabrielle Vander Kuyl was all smiles following her graduation ceremony at UNC-Greensboro’s School of Nursing on Thursday, May 4, 2023. In 2016, four months before Vander Kuyl was supposed to get her Bachelor of Science in nursing, she ended up paralyzed from a tragic accident. The mother of two used online classes during the pandemic to help her finish her degree.
Rob Steele is a candidate for the 2024 Raleigh City Council election. Steele’s fiancé was killed in the mass shooting in Raleigh’s Hedingham neighborhood in 2022. WUNC’s Will Michaels talked to Steele in September about how the memory of his late fiancé, Mary Marshall, motivates him.
Spring Council and her siblings, all co-owners of Mama Dip’s Kitchen in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, put the Rosemary Street building up for sale this past spring with an asking price of $3.6 million. Mama Dip was the nickname of Mildred Council, who opened the restaurant in 1976, and passed away in 2018. Spring Council spoke with WUNC’s Leoneda Inge back in April.
Anderson Clayton, the new NC Democratic Party Chair, sat in her office at the North Carolina Democratic headquarters in Raleigh in February, 2023. Clayton, of Person County, was just 25-years-old when she was elected to the chair. She sat down with WUNC’s Jeff Tiberii for a wide-ranging interview.
Impactful Moments
Cornell Watson
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Friends, family and other members of the Asian American community gathered in front of the Cary Arts Center on Sept. 5, 2023 to remember the life of Chinese American scientist Zijie Yan, a UNC faculty member who was killed in an on-campus shooting on Aug. 28, 2023.
On April 5, 2023, North Carolina state Rep. Tricia Cotham (left) announced that she was switching her affiliation to the Republican Party at a news conference at the North Carolina Republican Party headquarters in Raleigh, N.C. The change gave Republican state legislators a veto-proof supermajority in both chambers.
Gov. Roy Cooper held up the Medicaid expansion bill he signed during an event with lawmakers and healthcare advocates on March 27, 2023 at the governor’s mansion in Raleigh, N.C. North Carolina became the 40th state in the country to expand Medicaid.
In his first season on the job — after succeeding longtime Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski — Jon Scheyer cut down the nets after leading the Blue Devils’ men’s basketball team to an ACC Tournament title in Greensboro, N.C. on March 11, 2023.
Around North Carolina
Cornell Watson
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For WUNC
On Oct. 3, 2023, folks lined up to buy lunch from ‘Aubrey’s and Peedies’ on Main Street in downtown Wendell. Once a sleepy suburb, it is now grappling with traffic and development as one of North Carolina’s fastest-growing towns.
Jonathon Gruenke
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For WUNC
Dr. James Trybus, director of the North Carolina Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory System, posed for a portrait inside a laboratory at the Steve Troxler Agricultural Sciences Center in Raleigh on March 23, 2023. Earlier this year, across North Carolina state government agencies, more than 23% of jobs were vacant.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. prepared to race at the North Wilkesboro Speedway on Wednesday, May 17, 2023. Earnhardt — along with Gov. Roy Cooper — played a pivotal role in bringing NASCAR back to North Wilkesboro this past May. The 2023 All-Star Race was the first time since 1996 that the speedway held a NASCAR-sanctioned race.
Cornell Watson
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For WUNC
Fair Bluff sits near the Lumber River and has experienced catastrophic loss from two major hurricanes in 2016 and 2018. This aerial image was captured on Nov. 29, 2023, as part of the “Main Street” series for the WUNC Politics Podcast.
National Stories on a Local Level
Cornell Watson
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Riley Sullivan demonstrated how to administer a dose of Naloxone, a drug that reverses the effects of an opiod overdose, at his apartment in Chapel Hill. In August, Sullivan had a $15,000 supply of injectable naloxone in his closet at his off-campus apartment. He and two of his classmates have become unexpected distributors of the drug in this college town where several students have recently died from opioids.
Palestinian supporters held signs and waved flags at a rally in Moore Square in Raleigh, N.C. on Oct. 22, 2023. Earlier that day, supporters of Israel gathered in Raleigh’s Bicentennial Plaza.
Chastity Kinsey, Principal of Everetts Elementary S.T.E.M. Academy, suffers from long COVID. She is one of more than 2,000 people who have beentreated by the long COVID clinic at UNC Health Care.
Jonathon Gruenke
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For WUNC
North Carolina State women’s basketball players high fived each other before the start of a Sunday afternoon game against Notre Dame at Reynolds Coliseum in Raleigh on Jan. 29, 2023. Women’s basketball fandom was on the rise in North Carolina in 2023, as N.C. State sold out all nine of its ACC home games. On a national level, a record-high of 9.9 people tuned in to watch the women’s basketball national championship game.
